8 Ways to Collaborate Effectively with Your Team
Collaborating can be a challenge when you can’t use body language or point to a body of work when your team is on the other side of the screen. Though we’ve learned to be productive while working remotely during the pandemic taking it beyond the basics will take your team to that next level. Sometimes updates to different screen share tools elevates and guides your audience to follow along. Some insightful feedback I got recently was that with the rollout of improvements to different conference apps, the virtual laser pointer may help with visually guiding your conversation. However, because I want to focus on thinking about how to best collaborate with your team, I’ll not be focusing on how to best find xyz feature on ABC product. Sorry! Here are 8 ways to collaborate with your teams.
- Emulate Cooking Shows
Preparing is important. You know those cooking shows that give you the steps but then show you the final product? That visual representation of step-by-step instruction is helpful for those that need that little extra bit to fill in the gaps of understanding. Showing the final product is the result. Sometimes you may have technical issues or something that distracts the audience. So having the final product ready to show the expected outcome is important. You also in that moment want to add any factoids you feel are important for later.
2. Diagram or Sketch It Out
Sometimes the step-by-step just doesn’t cut it. You’ll want to find a tool that best serves you in conveying your concept from words you speak to words/drawings on a screen. It allows the audience to latch onto your concept in a material way. This will elevate your explanations or thoughts. Diagramming in real time or showing something as basic as dragging and dropping words in observation from one column to another brings the discussion to life. The act of seeing something move from A to B gives the audience a visual link to why some business process is moving or being collected into one group over another. Or, how a project that had conceptual discussions. I once worked on a project where travel was not an option. There were key concepts I had to convey about how we need an audit trail and how we want to use audit event keys to trace back or leverage rolling back or scheduling information. The team was across the ocean and we were short on time. Before I setup the call, I mapped out how I’d sketch on screen and took some time practicing to make sure when I was ready for that remote session this prepared me to walk the concept and use the tool with very few hiccups.
3. Learn How Your Team Learns
It’s important to recognize the people learn in different ways. Some are visual, others are high concept, some require demonstration. Whatever it is, your road to success lives in knowing your audience. If you can frame a discussion around the different ways people learn, you will be able to effectively communicate and collaborate with your teams. This requires some trial and error. Don’t be afraid to ask your team how they learn best. I found in the past when you understand how people learn they appreciate the time you spent making sure I did not leave them behind. It saddens me to say this, but in my high school years you’d be left behind because a teacher or a school of thought lectures was the way to teach. It is simply one way to teach, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone. There is no one size fits all for learning and we paid for that mistake when realizing that what we ended up doing was punishing the future by not being aware of how people learn. How you may ask? It’s entirely possible by that way of thinking you have dismissed a population of people by simply thinking “they don’t get it”.
4. Learn How Others Communicate Online
Similar to how you want to understand how people learn. Learning how people communicate will elevate your interaction. And hopefully response times! I know we don’t want to be “extra” in needing an immediate response due to time sensitive work. I find mentioning that you have time sensitivities is helpful because it allows the person you’re talking to prioritize your request. This isn’t just specific to mode of communication, e.g., instant messages, phone calls, zoom call, email, etc. But also being aware of the best time to contact someone based on time zone or availability can often go a long way.
5. Take Time for Down Time
Work life balance is a challenge at times. With all the video conferencing and work sessions. It’s important to block time off for down time, be it time to focus on the work itself, lunches, short breaks etc. Breaks in between long working sessions helps you process your thoughts, discussions, and everything that has come up over days, weeks months. Just because you’re not in a meeting doesn’t mean that you aren’t working. It’s been a long misconception that if you are seen that you are “working”. Ironically, those who actually in meetings all day can share sympathies, you’re not always working per se but talking about the work. When it’s noisy all the time, you aren’t giving yourself the quiet time to decompress and process everything. It may feel counterintuitive to have these breaks. I found I am refreshed and invigorated to tackle challenges when I have breaks here and there.
6. Experiment With Different Tools
In this ever changing landscape of remote work and technology. Experimenting and trying different tools or similar tools is a great way to learn and be more comfortable with cloud based products. What I love about learning and experimenting is that as you open up your landscape of knowledge, you felt more comfortable taking on anything new. Most companies often have an online community, YouTube videos, and or knowledge base articles. What I like to do with any new tools I take on is that I have key goals in mind of what I want to do or accomplish. For example, I come across a road mapping tool. I needed it to be quick and easy so that when I’m creating presentations that show a 50,000 foot view of a strategy and potentially key steps underneath the tool shouldn’t take me hours to build this graphic. Thinking about how something will help improve your productivity or how it can elevate your work are ingredients to being informed if it’d be a useful product or not.
7. Schedule Working/Brain Storming Sessions
Now if you’re remote, those impromptu whiteboard sessions are a thing of that past. And that’s okay. I enjoy scheduled working/brain storming sessions better because I’m the type that likes to plan or prepare. I found that notion of let’s gather everyone in a room and brainstorm seemed to let those with the loudest voices and quick thinkers shine. It did nothing for me. I felt isolated or excluded and often talked over. It wasn’t the best way for me to thrive. So for the folks like me, setting up the time to schedule working sessions could be a newfound joy! If you have team members that are like-minded or working towards a common goal, this can often be some of the best collaborating sessions.
8. Virtual Water Cooler Time
I’m not talking about Zoom Happy Hours — I find those are not quite my thing. But, I enjoy having a lunch session with a smaller group of my team or time blocked to catchup whether it be work related or just a gossip session about shows and other things. It’s a wonderful way to connect and get to know your team better. Especially if some of your team joined during the pandemic and haven’t met in person. I’ll say if this isn’t for you, don’t force yourself to do it. These sessions should be genuine and authentic. I’m fortunate that my team and I have found that we are in sync and truly enjoy spending time together.
Final Thoughts
I hope that during these challenging times you find your best mode of interacting with others and these tips offer you some additional ways to continue. I know at least for myself as an introvert who has extrovert tendencies I’ve thrived during the pandemic. I’ve learned the best ways to communicate with others and discovered what works for me and how I can be support to my team.
